Adam Pash

The Web Worker Daily weblog discusses the virtue of the short email, arguing that our current rules and expectations for email niceties are outdated.

Everyone's so worried about offending by email that they try to make it more human and more friendly at the cost to everyone's productivity, without a great increase in human connection. While short snappy emails and short snappy replies might come across as curt, research suggests that such messages lead to the highest productivity.

We've touched on this debate in specific instances in the past, from "Best" as a brushoff to the necessity of the one-word thanks email, so let's abstract this thing: Are email formalities and niceties an unnecessary waste of time or an important cog in the engine of communication? Let us know in the comments.